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☆ Twitter is adding verified check marks to the accounts of dead celebrities, making them look like paid Twitter Blue subscribers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter added verified checks to accounts of dead celebrities to promote Twitter Blue subscriptions. Their accounts said they'd bought a Twitter Blue subscription and verified their phone numbers. Chadwick Boseman's Twitter account, with Twitter Blue subscription badge added posthumously. Anthony Bourdain's Twitter account, with Twitter Blue subscription badge added posthumously. InsiderHowever, the posthumous Twitter Blue badges may run afoul of laws protecting consumers from false endorsements.

☆ Two people killed, 10 hurt in Madrid restaurant blaze
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Rescuers work outside a restaurant following a fire, in Madrid, Spain, April 21, 2023, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. Madrid Emergency Service/Handout via REUTERSMADRID, April 22 (Reuters) - Two men died and 10 others were injured after a fire at a restaurant in the Spanish capital Madrid, emergency services said on Saturday. The blaze started late on Friday night at Burro Canaglia Bar&Resto, an Italian restaurant in the central neighbourhood of Salamanca. Diners struggled to flee as the blaze started near the main exit, emergency services said. Reporting by Graham Keeley, Catherine MacDonald; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Daughter of U.S. citizen jailed by Iran says she has lost confidence in US efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MADRID, April 22 (Reuters) - The daughter of an environmentalist imprisoned by Iran said on Saturday she had lost confidence in U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to free her father. Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American who also holds British citizenship, has served five years of a 10-year sentence after being convicted of spying. In July his lawyer was quoted as saying he had been granted bail, but his daughter said he was now back in jail. The United States has urged Iran to release Tahbaz and two other citizens, Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi, who are all imprisoned on espionage charges that Washington says are baseless. Namazi, an oil executive, was jailed for 10 years in 2016 on charges of spying and cooperating with the U.S. government.

☆ Six Leopard tanks leave Spain en route to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Vincent West | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Leopard 2 6A4 tanks are driven onto a cargo ship at the port of Santander, bound for Poland and subsequently for Ukraine, in Santander, Spain, April 21, 2023. The German-made Leopard tanks and armoured personnel carriers were driven onto a cargo vessel, Reuters witnesses said. Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said this month that Spain will send 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks. The U.S. in January promised 31 of its Abrams tanks while Germany committed Leopard tanks. NATO countries have promised to send 48 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

☆ Russia Stole Land and Grain. Now It’s Taking Timber, Ukraine Says.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Sergii Bosak | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-stole-land-and-grain-now-its-taking-timber-ukraine-says-80de779c

☆ What is autism? An expert explains
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Matt Villano | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

To mark Autism Awareness Month, CNN talked with him about what autism is and what causes it. Geschwind: About a decade ago, the term “autism spectrum disorder” was adopted to encompass everything that we called autism into one rubric. When I started researching autism 25 years ago, the autism rate was 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 2,000. You can calculate a risk score for having autism based on genetics, (but) right now, the risk score for autism is not that predictive because we haven’t done enough research. The problem is that for many autistic individuals, current therapies are not that effective.

☆ Gunmen kidnap 80, including children, in northwest Nigeria
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Ardo Hazzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BAUCHI, Nigeria, April 8 (Reuters) - Gunmen abducted at least 80 people, mostly women and children, in Nigeria's Zamfara state, a hotspot for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote villages, residents said on Saturday. Gangs of armed men have attacked hundreds of local communities across northwestern Nigeria in recent years, while Islamist militants continue to stage attacks in the northeast. The latest kidnapping took place on Friday in Wanzamai village in Tsafe local government area in Zamfara, three residents said. The gunmen had not yet made ransom demands, the residents said. Amina Tsafe said her daughter was also abducted and that most of the children taken were aged between 12 and 17 years.

☆ Ukraine Farms Attract Money and Help From Allies, Top Food Companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Patrick Thomas | Alistair Macdonald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Agriculture was responsible for 10% of Ukraine’s gross domestic product and 40% of its exports before the war. Foreign countries and some of the world’s largest agriculture companies are donating or lending hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukrainian farmers, marking an early push by Kyiv’s allies to rebuild the country even as the war shows little sign of ending soon. Ukraine’s farming industry has been hit hard by Russia’s invasion. Equipment has been destroyed, land has been expropriated and mined and export routes choked off. Financing is hard to come by, and some of the industry’s most basic imports, such as fertilizer, are in short supply.

☆ Fact Check-Image does not show authentic Norm Macdonald tweet about the media misgendering trans shooter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

(Please note offensive language in second paragraph)Image appearing to show a 2016 tweet from late Canadian stand-up comedian and actor Norm Macdonald about media misgendering is digitally altered. The original tweet referred to the Islamic State and a potential “backlash against peaceful Muslims.” The edited version circulated after the shooter at a Nashville school on March 27 was identified as transgender. “Norm was ahead of his time,” states a tweet sharing the image (here), (archive.is/BC4b7). Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?” (here)Macdonald was a Canadian comedian who died at the age of 61 on Sept. 14, 2021, following a “nine-year private battle with cancer,” Deadline reported (here). This image does not show an authentic tweet by Norm MacDonald, who died in 2021.

☆ Nigerian drummer nurtures children to preserve use of local instruments
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Seun Sanni | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LAGOS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Nigerian artist Adebayo Ayodeji is targeting children to play traditional instruments like drums, which he worries could become extinct and erase an important aspect of the culture in Africa's most populous country. In the megacity of Lagos, parents bring children to his twice-a-month drumming workshops to learn how to play drums and understand their traditional significance. "We are using this to revive our cultural values," Ayodeji said, noting that most children had not seen the drums before. "They've not played it before and this is an opportunity to introduce them to it, so we are using it to at least do a kind of evangelism – evangelism of art," Ayodeji said. Reporting by Seun Sanni; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine Warns of Further Fall in Grain Harvest
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ukraine forecasts an up to 15% fall in the grain harvest in 2023 compared with last year. A wheat field in Ukraine’s Kherson region. Ukraine expects its farmers to harvest up to 15% less grain this year than last, showing how the war is further hindering one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters. With Russia’s invasion continuing to disrupt exports, some farmers have switched to crops that are easier to get out of the country, like sunflower seeds and soy, Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy and food, said in an interview.

☆ Nigeria's two big parties dominate governorship elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Macdonald Dzirutwe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LAGOS, March 20 (Reuters) - Nigeria's two biggest parties won the majority of states in weekend governorship polls, official figures showed on Monday, maintaining their political dominance following elections in which European Union observers said 21 people died from violence. But Obi came third in the presidential race behind Tinubu and Atiku and his Labour Party was yet to win a governorship race. Official figures showed that APC won 15 states, including the closely watched Lagos race, compared to seven for PDP, which led in another state as counting continued. A northern regional party won one state and led in another. Two races were declared inconclusive because they were too close to call between APC and PDP.

☆ Lagos governor re-elected in victory for Nigeria ruling party
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Macdonald Dzirutwe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Lagos state gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Babajide Sanwo-Olu, arrives his polling unit to cast his vote, during the gubernatorial election in Lagos, Nigeria March 18, 2023. The Lagos election was the highest profile among races for powerful governorships in 28 of Nigeria's 36 states, as well as for state assemblies across the country. Voting was postponed to Sunday at 10 polling stations in a Lagos neighbourhood following disagreements between INEC officials and voters over the location of polling units. In northeastern Adamawa, a conservative and largely Muslim state, electoral officials were collating results after a race that could produce Nigeria's first elected female governor. Voters were still casting ballots in two districts of oil-producing Rivers state where the INEC failed to deliver voting materials.

☆ War in Ukraine Has Supercharged This German Weapons Maker
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Bojan Pancevski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rheinmetall says its Panther tank, on display near Paris last year, brings greater firepower and precision than current tanks. The war in Ukraine has made munitions maker Rheinmetall AG a key player in the global arms trade, catapulting the once low-profile German manufacturer into one of Europe’s most important weapons suppliers. Since Russia’s invasion last year, Rheinmetall’s shares have risen 150%, and the company has reported record earnings and orders, with the conflict’s artillery-heavy nature pointing to strong future demand for its shells. The company also has begun talks with German and Ukrainian officials about building a tank factory in Ukraine.

☆ Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s Satellite-Launch Venture, Has Fallen Fast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Two months ago, Richard Branson ’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. was poised to make history delivering the first satellites into orbit from the billionaire’s home country of the U.K.That high-profile launch from Cornwall, England, went badly, ending in the destruction of its satellite payload and triggering a probe into what went wrong.

☆ VIEW UK budget: no recession in 2023; UK assets sink in global market turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"Despite continuing global instability, the OBR report today that inflation in the UK will fall from 10.7% in the final quarter of last year to 2.9% by the end of 2023." MARKET REACTION:STOCKS: The FTSE 100 (.FTSE) was down 3%, under pressure from a rout in global bank stocks, while the domestic-focussed midcap index (.FTMC) fell 2.5%. MONEY MARKETS: UK bond yields pared some of their daily declines, with the 10-year yield last down 19 basis points at roughly 3.30%, compared with a session low of 3.289% when Hunt began talking. EDWARD PARK, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, BROOKS MACDONALD, LONDON:"I would view this very much as a budget for the bond market." "When the dust settles, international investors will be constructive around the type of budget we've had today, which suggests a calmer approach to managing the UK.

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Finance minister Jeremy Hunt presented less gloomy forecasts for Britain's economy at his Spring Budget on Wednesday. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsROSIER OUTLOOKA rout in global banking stocks on Wednesday overshadowed many UK-specific moves. Investments announced by Hunt such as a corporate spending tax break, a boost for defence and extra childcare support were not viewed as particularly inflationary. Unlike in the last budget, noise around windfall taxes on oil and gas companies was muted in the run-up to the budget since energy prices have fallen dramatically since then. "In general, the budget is not the big story for gilts right now, global drivers are in the driving seat," said James Smith, economist at ING.

☆ Nigeria launches $672 million tech fund for young investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LAGOS, March 14 (Reuters) - Nigeria launched a $672 million fund on Tuesday to support tech and creative sectors for young investors who struggle to raise capital in Africa's largest economy. So far only Chipper Cash, a cross border payments startup, has said it had $1 million in SVB. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo launched the $672 million fund under the Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme (DCEP) in the federal capital Abuja, the presidency said in a statement. African Development Bank will put in $170 million, $116 million will come from Agence Francaise de Developpement and another $70 million from Islamic Development Bank, the presidency said. The government through Bank of Industry Nigeria will release $45 million while the private sector pledged $271 million.

☆ Russia’s War in Ukraine Hurts Its Arms Industry, Creates Openings for Rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Jon Emont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Among the casualties of Russia’s war in Ukraine: its own lucrative arms-export industry. Russia has long been the world’s second-largest arms exporter, after the U.S., but its sales have been in decline ever since Moscow-backed forces seized parts of Ukraine in 2014.

Meanwhile, extremely wide forecasts for new public borrowing requirements make the outlook for government bonds uncertain. Here are the main budget predictions for UK stocks, gilts and the pound. However NatWest analysts flagged that the OBR will likely revise down growth forecasts for the next five years, making the outlook for interest rates finely balanced. Hunt will likely keep the budget "reasonably dull" after Truss's "mini-budget" sent sterling to its lowest on record, she added. Investors in UK stocks are already grappling with a wide valuation gap with U.S. equities.

☆ Russia’s War in Ukraine Hurts Its Arms Industry, Creating Openings for Rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Jon Emont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Among the casualties of Russia’s war in Ukraine: its own lucrative arms-export industry. Russia has long been the world’s second-largest arms exporter, after the U.S., but its sales have declined ever since Moscow-backed forces seized parts of Ukraine in 2014.

☆ Six Nigerian states challenge election in Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Camillus Eboh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ABUJA, March 3 (Reuters) - Six opposition-led Nigerian states have asked the Supreme Court to throw out the result of last weekend's presidential vote, saying the electoral body broke the law and its own rules during the count, court papers showed. Six of Nigeria's 36 states - Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto - said in court papers dated Feb. 28 that the election commission had failed to transmit results through an electronic system meant to show transparency. They sought a court declaration that all presidential election results announced by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) "were invalid, null and void, and of no effect whatsoever". Those materials included ballot papers and voting machines, the order from the appeals court showed. There have been numerous legal challenges to the outcome of past Nigerian presidential elections but none has succeeded.

☆ Nigeria's Obi says he, not Tinubu, won presidential election
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Camillus Eboh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Summary Presidential election marred by technical problemsWinner Tinubu says vote was credibleChallenger Obi vows to overturn result in courtAfter vibrant campaign, turnout was record lowABUJA, March 2 (Reuters) - Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi said on Thursday he had won Saturday's election, called Bola Tinubu's victory fraudulent and promised to claim the top job through legal means. Tinubu, the ruling party candidate, was declared president-elect of Africa's most populous nation on Wednesday, having won 37% of the vote. He said the election was credible and the reported problems had had no impact on the overall outcome. "We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians," he said. While neither generated the visible enthusiasm directed at Obi, both had powerful political machines and decades of networking behind them.

☆ Explainer: Nigeria election: what to expect from president-elect Bola Tinubu
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Macdonald Dzirutwe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LAGOS, March 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria's president-elect Bola Tinubu has promised to tackle a litany of problems, including escalating violence, double-digit inflation and industrial-scale oil theft. Tinubu says he will build on Buhari's public infrastructure programme to create jobs and remove legal limits on government spending. Tinubu says he will set up a surveillance unit to protect the country's pipelines and attract new investors with tax incentives. Africa's top producer of crude oil depends on imported refined fuels, something Tinubu wants to end by increasing domestic refining through joint ventures with private investors. Tinubu wants to recruit more soldiers and police officers, while paying and equipping them better.

☆ NHL roundup: Linus Ullmark's record night lifts Bruins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Dmitry Orlov scored twice in a three-point game while Pavel Zacha also scored for the Bruins. Panthers 4, Lightning 1Eric Staal, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen scored first-period goals as Florida broke Tampa Bay's club-record 16-game home point streak. Sergei Bobrovsky's 29 saves helped him set a record for most NHL wins by a Russian goaltender (354). Jesse Ylonen, Kaiden Guhle and Christian Dvorak scored third-period goals for the Canadiens, who have won three of four. Travis Boyd, Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain also scored goals and Clayton Keller added a pair of assists for Arizona, which snapped a two-game losing streak.

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